Fog — With the ESEA Invite LAN being less than 2 weeks away, ESEA has already announced their upcoming Season 11. Similar to the transition from Season 9 to Season 10, ESEA are looking to minimize the length of time between the end of LAN and the beginning of the next season. One of the biggest changes from Season 10 to Season 11 is the prize pool for all of the ESEA leagues, increasing from $80,000 to $85,000+ (combined with all the leagues, not just TF2). This means that there is more money at stake for all the teams, and should provide a much more competitive scene for S11.

Other significant changes include the addition of a Counter Strike: Global Offensive 32-team Open League, complete with beta keys for each team, and the increased number of league servers and new hardware to ease the scheduling issues of past seasons.

The full news release after the jump.

In an effort to minimize the off-season, we’re happy to announce ESEA League Season 11 which will feature over $85,000 in cash prizes and a LAN event for all Invite division playoffs. Season 11 will also feature a number of improvements based on user and team feedback from Season 10.

Registration for S11 will open Friday, February 24th, 2012 at 6:00pm CST and will remain so until Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 11:59pm CST. Once registration closes there will be a week for teams to get acquainted with the system and to schedule their first matches, which will begin Sunday, April 1st, 2012.

Key Changes From Season 10 to Season 11:

Inaugural 32 team Counter-Strike: Global Offensive division with Beta keys
Increased prize pot from $80,000+ to $85,000+
Increased number of League servers on new hardware to ease scheduling availability

Features of ESEA League include:

Two matches per week for all divisions
Every registered team will receive a free Mumble VOIP server
Complete web match scheduling
SMS scheduling alerts
All matches played on our ESEA servers across eight locations
Protection from our industry leading anti-cheat / config locking Client
Helpful team of handpicked paid league Admins who are active in each community
Complete box scores and stats for EVERY match (just as we have for pugs and scrims)
HLTV and SourceTV demo downloads for every match within 5 minutes of matches finishing
Automatic live HLTV and SourceTV for every match (unlimited number of spectators)
Automatic live irc scorebots for every match
Automatic POV demo recording
User prediction system for every match
LAN event for all Invite division playoffs
You build your permanent league record

We’re giving everyone a heads up on registration due to the fact that the 32 team CS: GO Open division will likely fill up quickly since the first 32 fully paid teams receive enough Beta keys to equip at least 5 players in preparation for the season. Please note that as in past seasons you’ll be able to easily play more than one game by joining multiple teams.

Team move ups and move downs, a full prize pot breakdown, as well as the map rotations will be announced within the coming weeks so be sure and check back often

Source: http://esea.net/index.php?s=esports&d=comments&id=10780